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Too Cool for School, Successful Futures: The 10 Worst Dropout Cities

Here's a tough statistic: According to The Daily Beast, 15 percent of schools produce more than 50 percent of all high school dropouts. The...

Patrick James
By Patrick JamesOct 31, 2009
Patrick James
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Here's a tough statistic: According to The Daily Beast, 15 percent of schools produce more than 50 percent of all high school dropouts. The statement accompanies this gallery of the 10 cities with the worst dropout rates in the country. They are, in reverse order, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Fresno, California; Chatanooga, Tennessee; Greenville-Mauldin-Easley, South Carolina; Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida; Riverside-San Bernadino-Ontario, California; Stockton, California; Augusta-Richmond County, South Carolina; McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas; and, finally, Bakersfield, California. From The DB:Roughly 16 percent of the Bakersfield population over 18 does not have a high-school diploma. Using the same population threshold, the Bakersfield area also ranked fifth lowest in the nation for median individual annual earnings, with $24,228 earned yearly by workers there.You'll notice that some of the other cities listed are actually metropolitan areas that include multiple cities. I don't know if that should make them feel a little bit better or far, far worse. Regardless, it seems abundantly clear that we've got a lot of work to do in California.Photo (cc) by Flickr user nickchapman.
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